17. Venezia to CortinaJun 13, 2011
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Some ducks and old walls on the road from Venice.
The old and the new. Suburban house in a village on the...
Irrigation channel on the road to Tramonti.
| Day 30 Venezia to Tramonti di Sotto Last night was tricky because a restaurant next to the camp ground was having Karaoke and they went on until 11:30 when all I wanted to do was get to sleep. Eventually half a Restavit tablet helped but we had an early start with breakfast at 6:30 instead of 7:00. WE left our camp at Punta Sabbioni and rode along a beach front lined with campings and hotels for about 30km. It was along here that Terry and Bruce had a collision caused by some silly youths which resulted in Terry's back wheel and Bruce's front wheel sustaining damage. Neither was hurt although Bruce is 67 and any fall can leave bruising. With a wheel swap Terry continued while Bruce took a ride in the van until both wheels were fixed at lunchtime by our master mechanic Richard. I was riding with Wallace, Tom, Lockie and James when the bag on the back of Tom's bike broke free. In slowing to avoid it Lockie crashed into the back of my bike and he fell fairly heavily. I stayed upright by some fluke. He was heavily winded but after a few minutes of rest was able to continue. The ride was otherwise flat and uneventful until another group caught up with us and James decided to up the ante and try to lose the other group. In the process he lost me completely as I was unable to hold their wheel. I rode on alone for a while until I met with some of the other group who had also been dropped. We rode on to the usual filling and tasty lunch. After lunch I had trouble staying with any group and rode alone for about 20 km. Somehow I missed a left turn and ended up at an intersection that had none of the towns we were heading to shown on the signs. I asked a local who directed me to a key town along a different route and I was happily on track after 10 km. Soon after I met up with a few others and we started back into the hills. It was nice to have an easy gradient and a road through forest and ever looming hills. We passed by a picturesque reservoir lake and then reached our camp-site for the night on the banks of a cold and stony but otherwise very pretty river. Wilbert, who had taken over charge of the ride from Rob, had a surprise for us; a couple of slabs of beer and some bottles of Coke resting quietly in the cold water. We sat around and played silly games with the rocks in the river until dinner time. Here we were informed of tomorrow's ride. This is 119km with 3255m of climbing; the highest of the three climbs we will do is over 1800m. Unfortunately the forecast is for rain in the afternoon when we are climbing the third climb. We all have our fingers crossed! Day 31 Tramonti di Sotto to Cortina d'Ampezzo Due to the long ride with lots of climbing it was decided that breakfast will be at 6:00am instead of 7:00am. As a special treat Jaap made omelettes with cheese, bacon and 70 eggs. These were most appreciated especially as we had run out of muesli and had to make do with Italian corn flakes. I left early at about 6:45 with Paul and Robert and we rode together for the first 5km until the start of the first climb. I just continued at my own pace expecting that Paul and Robert would sit on my wheel and follow me up. After about 10 minutes I looked back and they were nowhere in sight so I just continued at my chosen pace. I didn't want to go too hard but I also wanted to ride at a comfortable pace. At various times I was passed by faster riders but I made no effort to keep up with them as this would wear me out too soon. Occasionally I caught up with riders who had started before me and, after a brief chat, I continued at my pace. The scenery changed gradually from forest to open grassland and the architecture started to show distinct Austro/German aspects. This part of Italy was once under the control of the Austrians and the road signs are often written in two, sometimes three, languages. The first peak passed uneventfully but I was very careful on the downhill as the road surface was poor and there was a lot of wet leaf litter about. I learned later that young Chris, from Bundaberg, had a serious off and banged his head badly. Wilbert drove him 45 km to the nearest hospital where he is being kept overnight for observation. The second climb started Ok but soon the gradients became quite high, averaging 9%, towards the lunch stop the gradients hit 18% for about a kilometre. I gave it my best but eventually couldn't manage any more and walked the last 500m or so until the road flattened to a more manageable 10%. It started to rain heavily for the last 5km or so and I regretted not putting my waterproof bootees on at the camp. Instead they were in a bag at the lunch stop along with a dry shirt and socks. The lunch spot turned out to be further that I expected but it was in a cafe/bar with a roaring fire and a coffee machine. I actually had a hot chocolate and then a cappuccino. I got changed and put on extra waterproofing which wasn't all that much help since I was already wet. I didn't hang about too long and joined Tom and Lockie as we set off for the descent and then the third climb. Quite a few riders chose to pull out at the lunch spot. Once again I took it easy on the descent which dropped us from 1800m to about 600m in 20km. We noticed that the rain had stopped although the road was wet. It seemed that we were following the rain but managing to stay far enough back to avoid getting wet. The climb to the third pass started easily enough with gradients of 2% and 3% for 25 km but soon enough the road steepened to 9% and more. At the worst spots my Garmin was recording 14%. I was still riding with Tom and Lockie and we reached what we thought was the top only to find, to our dismay, that there were another 3 km of 12% climb to go. However, the scenery at this time was verging on the spectacular, unfortunately I had forgotten to charge the camera again so only got a few photos. The rugged and spectacular mountains, with snow still showing in the valleys and evidence of massive land slippages, were a sight to behold. There were waterfalls, huge dry river beds which obviously deal with the snow melt and turquoise rivers leading to high artificial lakes. One of these had a delightful village of houses in the Austrian style. When we finally crested the last climb and started down to Cortina the rain, which had held off for hours, started again and made the downhill quite treacherous, especially due to the poor quality of the road surface. We made it down safely and finished in this amazing town of Cortina. It is larger than I expected but it was half 'closed' because of the mid season. The summer climbing season hasn't started yet. We were cold and tired but exhilarated because we had finished what is recognised as the hardest stage of both rides that I am attempting. There was hot tomato soup and fresh bread waiting for us after my 7 hours and 50 minutes in the saddle. Altogether I have been on the road today for 9 hours. After showering and relaxing we walked into town for a pleasant dinner in a busy but friendly restaurant. Tomorrow we have a late start with breakfast at 7:30 and bags into the vans by 9:00. The ride is only a short one which will give me some time to look around the town in the morning when it is forecast to be fine. |
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